Last chance to vote!

It's the last chance to see and vote for the award winning anim8ed films "The Lion at Home" and "Immersion Emergence" at the Seattle International Film Festival. Voting closes om 4th June. Don't miss out! www.indieflix.com/siff2010

Official selection success in Edinburgh

We are proud to be screening in the official selection of the Edinburgh International Film Festival!

The Astronomers Sun plays in the McLaren Animation 1 programme on the following dates:

Thursday 17 June 15:00 Filmhouse 3 (McLaren Animation 1)

Saturday 19 June 11:45 Filmhouse 3 (McLaren Animation 1)

official screening success in London!

The Astronomer's Sun has just been selected for official screening in this year's Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival held in London, UK, in June 2010. Tickets for the Official Screenings will be available from Wednesday 16 June.

Check out all of our other official competition selections, about the directors and the crew who made the film at: http://www.theastronomerssun.com/ the new site from Duchy Parade FIlms dedicated to The Astronomer's Sun.

SIFF Spotlight: The Lion At Home

SIFF Spotlight: The Lion At Home

Lion at Home wins in the Czech Republic!

Yippee! The “The Lion at Home” received an award in the Animated Films Made by Children category at the 9th annual AniFest 2010 – the International Festival of Animated Films, which took place from the 18 - 23 May in the city of Teplice, Czech Republic.

The jury said:

"The children´s jury selected this film unanimously for its originality, meaningful story line and beautiful art.“

Bricknell Primary school have won a photo-camera with the award. Congratulations!!

Don't forget, you can see The Lion at Home" and vote for it at the Seattle International Film Festival!

We've been picking up some great comments including this from Simon Green, Director of Hull Museums & Gallery who worked with us on the film.


"Superb! This kind of creativity is the reason why I decided to move from the private sector to work in culture. The kids have clearly enjoyed the work and this shows in the end result. I am currently arranging to have this work shown on our service web site."

 My storyboarding tutor at Aardman Animation, ex head of training at Disney Feature Animation and DreawWorks Feature Animation and all round animation God, Frank Gladstone says:
 
"Most excellent. Hurrah for the director, the teachers and especially the kids. Great work and storytelling!"

VOTE for your favouite to WIN!

OK - this is very exciting! Two children's films I've mentored for the National Media Museums Anim8ed Stories education programme are screening in competition at the Seattle International Film Festival, the largest and most well-attended film festival in the United States with 150,000 attendees expected in 2010.

You can see these films and VOTE for your favourite. The winner will receive special recognition at SIFF so be sure to contact everyone you know and tell them to support your work by watching it and voting  www.indieflix.com/siff2010

Voting ends on June 4 and the main festival runs from May 20 to June 13.

"The Lion at Home" was made by year 4 pupils at Bricknell Primary School in Hull. Last month it won Best Child Made Animation (joint award), Silver Salt Animation Festival 2010 in India! An earthquake causes a lion cub to tumble out of a painting and embark on an incredible adventure through a series of paintings at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull.

"Immersion Emergence" was made by year 8 pupils at Titus Salt School in Bradford. It tells the story of Sohni and Mahiwal, one of the worlds classic tragic love stories. It won the award for Best Short Film by Young People at the Bradford Animation Festival last year!

SIFF sat "We are very excited about this competition, all of the films are spectacular and you all should be very proud of your work."

How is the winner calculated? Winners are based on a standard “Audience Award” style of most festivals. The number of votes are balanced against the average rating (1 to 5 stars) that the film receives. The number of views is posted but are there only help you get an idea of how well your marketing is going but isn’t calculated in when selecting the winner.

Only one vote will be counted and multiple registrations and votes will be removed. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or have any technical issues in watching the films.

Please do show your support to these films. Thank you and... Enjoy!

Immersion Emergence

The Lion at Home

Teacher training in Leeds

I’m really looking forward to delivering this very special CPD 1 day CPD animation training for teachers in Leeds on June 17th. If you are a teacher interested in using animation in your class, this is for you! Email James Long for more information at james.long@kudlian.net or Click here for information

Best Child Made Animation - Silver Salt Animation Festival

Congratulations to "The Lion at Home" (Bricknell Primary School) and "Leeds Pals" (Kell Bank Primary School) which won the “Best Child Made Animation” award at the first Silver Salt Animation Festival 2010, India's largest ever animation festival on Sunday!

As well as Silver Salt, the a collection of films from Anim8ed, the National Media Museums educational outreach programme, including "The Lion at Home" were given a special screening at the Cairo Children's Film Festival where I spent a glorious week, and will be shown at the Seattle International Animation Festival in May. The Lion at Home also picked up third prize at the National Young Filmmakers awards last weekend!

As I sadly couldn't make it over to the awards ceremony, they asked me to record a video acceptance speech for the award ceremony, so for fun, I though I'd share it with you!




Festivals like Silver Salt are incredible celebrations of child made films and I was asked to write a testimonial this testimonial for the festival.

Silver Salt Animation Festival offers a rare and important opportunity for the aspiring young animators of tomorrow to view their films in front of an audience on an international stage. As an animator who started making films with Super 8 at the age of 9, I can testify to the power such festivals hold. Screening films made by children and young people in mainstream festivals gives these films the prominence they deserve and serves to broaden the awareness of animation for both children and adults. Children’s films like “The Lion at Home” and “Leeds Pals” are wonderful in their own right, highlighting the unique way in which children see the world. But it is because these films support tomorrow’s animators that I view the “Best Child Made Animation” category as one of the most important awards in any festival.


Long may it prosper!

Tribute to Christopher Cazenove

I was sorry to hear about the death of Christopher Casonove, who died yesterday at the age of 66, after fighting a battle with septicaemia. He is who is probably best known for playing Ben Carrington in the glossy 1980s television soap opera Dynasty.

I had the real privilege to see Christopher perform live alongside John Duttine and Les Dennis in Art at Harrogate Theatre in 2003. I was working at the theatre bar at the time, and asked Mr Casonove if he would be record the voice of an animated character for my University film, "Vernic"! Being the gentleman he was, he said yes, and encouraged Les Dennis and John Duttine to also take part! We recorded a whole sequence of which I only used about a minute. His performance was a pleasure to animate. The laugh at the beginning of the film shows the skill Christopher had to infect everything with the utmost character.

A message from Barry Purves

Master animation director, Barry Purves, got in touch with us after seeing "The Astronomers Sun" in AnimFest animation festival in Athens last month. He liked the film much he has written this extraordinary write-up:

This exquisitely crafted and sensitive film manages to raise some profound and surprisingly emotional ideas, all in a few oblique, beautiful and economic minutes. Animation at its' mysterious and haunting best.

Barry Purves, who was a mentor on another 4mations Digital Short last year, is one of the worlds great puppet animation masters and inspires all of us. His new book "Basics Animation: Stop-Motion" hits the bookshops this week and includes a picture from - "The Astronomers Sun"! Co-director Jessica Cope's, graduation film, The Owl House, is also featured inside! We couldn't me more honoured and more excited to be featured in such distinguished company! Check out the Astronomers Sun blog for details information of where to see the film.

National Media Museum displays film set

We are very excited to announce the launch of a yearlong exhibition of the set from "The Astronomer’s Sun" at the National Media Museum. The set, which opened in time for the British Animation Awards, takes pride of place in the Animation Gallery, in the old Animator In Residence booth. Being the birthplace of many classic short films financed by the prestigious and long running Channel 4 scheme, there is no more fitting place to exhibit this new 4mations Digital Shorts film set, supporting new and emerging animators than the National Media Museum.


Above: Deb Singleton, Director of the Bradford Animation Festival with Simon & Ed Cartwright and part of the set.

Ralph Shephard gets Migraine

Well it’s been a busy New Year. With “The Astronomer’s Sun” premiering at BAA, my role as producer has moved into planning and co-ordinating a film festival strategy.

So while "The Astronomers Sun" is still in my in tray, I've been able to look to the future and get back into my own film once again. I’ll do a piece about the film itself shortly, (working title "Drawing Migraine"), but suffice to say it’s been quietly tormenting me for the last three years as I grab precious moments to work on it. Any film 3years in the making that still gets you excited simply has to be made. So in a concerted effort to make complete this film in a timely fashion, I’ve teamed up with a terrific artist, my good friend Ralph Shephard, who is lending his considerable skill to layout, backgrounds, and conceptual artwork.

Ralph is a true old school artist whose enviable talent has taken him from giant sculpture, model making, corporate character prototyping, graphics, set design and building. In animation he’s worked as a storyboard artist and character concept designer for Aardman Animations, Cosgrove Hall and Splash. Ralph has been a Fellow of the British Society of Painters since 2004.
If anyone needs a true fine artist on their team, they need look no further than Ralph. Check out his stunning work at London Art

"Joan of Arc", Ralph Shephard, Acrylic on canvas.

The Astronomers Sun World Premiere at the British Animation Awards

It’s finally here. The world premiere of “The Astronomers Sun”! We are very excited to launch the film at the British Animation Awards UK tour this month, where the film has been nominated for a Public Choice award for Best Short Film!

From the 8th to the 27th of February, you can catch the Public Choice screenings at a cinema near you, and vote for your favourite from a fantastic range of animated films made over the past few years. Three programmes containing a mix of animated shorts, music videos and commercials are screening at 27 venues across the UK. The Astronomers Sun plays in programme 3.

The British Animation Awards (BAA) covers all aspects of the UK animation scene, from student work to commercials, children's entertainment, short and experimental art films, music videos, new technologies.

We’d love to hear comments from people who catch to film on the blog. We are travelling to as many of the venues as we can, so if you see us, say hi!

A natter with Shourjo

Well that was certainly a different way to spend a Friday night! Sat in BBC radio Leeds being interviewed by cool-cat Shourjo Sarkar on his late show. It was a surreal experience, but Shourjo was such an welcoming and easy person to talk to and in a few minutes I was having a great natter about animation and life as if we were life long friends. Thanks to Shourjo and producer Darren for making me feel so welcome and putting me at ease. For anyone who missed it, it's available to listen to anywhere in the world on the BBC iPlayer for the next week.

Shourjo Sarkar's late show - this Friday!

I'm excited to say, I'm going to a guest on Shourjo Sarkar's late show this Friday at 10.30pm.
I'm going to be making announcing a couple of exciting anouncments about projects I'm currently working on, as well as having a good chat. So if you want to be the first to hear, tune in! It goes out across the North on BBC Radio Leeds, York, Humber and Sheffield.

Talk: Magical Stories and Special Effects

Wednesday 17 March, National Media Museum 10.00am - 12.00pm KS4, FE: Creative and Media Diploma, Media Studies.

I'm really excited to be doing this talk For any schools interested in attending, there are spaces still availble at the National Media Museum. Hopefully see some of you there!

David Bunting will talk about his work as a professional animator. With live animation demonstrations and behind the scenes clips, David will chart the animation process, from concept to completion, giving insights into how to tell a good story.The talk will be followed by a hands on animation Worksop! Bookings are available through the National Media Museum.

OSCAR nomination for The Secret of Kells!!!

My old college pals, Tom Moore and Paul Young have done it! Today its been announced that their first feature film, "The Secret of Kells" has been nominated for an OSCAR for Best Animated Feature Film!

Produced by their Kilkenny-based studio, The Cartoon Saloon, The Secret of Kells is one of five nominees in the Animated Feature Film category.

Since its release in 2009, The Secret of Kells, which features the voices of Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally, has been lauded around the world, collecting awards and heep of critical acclaim and a buge amount of buzz in festivals. It is quite simply one of the most beautifully designed drawn animated films I've ever seen.

Kells , directed by Tomm Moore, will go up against massive studio films: Coraline, Up, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Princess And The Frog.

So just in case that's not clear, a small independent film, a feautre film debut for Tomm Moore and The Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny, Ireland is up against mighty box office grossing films with major studio backing.

What a triumph!!! But I've knew Tomm and Paul well at college, and you know what - I'm not surprised, just THRILLED! These guys are and have have been extraordinary. It was Toms dream to make this film since he was about 14, and at college, he was working up a development package for the film while the rest of us were being toilet trained and discovering Guineess (well the latter for the International Students). Actually, Tom led a fair few fellow students out to Kellkenny some of whom worked on the film with him.

I'm still itching to see this film, after missing it at the London Children's Film Festival and Annecy earlier this year, but hopefully, this news will bring a much bigger distribution deal. I hope so!

The film follows 12-year-old Brendan (Evan McGuire), a mischievous monk who lives with his uncle, Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson). Brendan's life is changed forever with the arrival of Brother Aiden (Mick Lally), a celebrated master illuminator who awakens Brendan's hidden talent for illumination. With the terrifying Viking hordes closing in, the future of the precious Book of Kells is in jeopardy and it falls to Brendan to save the day.

The Secret of Kells was produced by Cartoon Saloon, Les Armateurs (France) and Vivi film (Belgium).

Congratulations!

The Astronomers Sun preview screening

Editor Adam Kirk outside the mighty 4.

Mentor Sara Mullock, Director Si Cartwright, Director John Williams

Director Jess Cope talking to Producer David Bunting

If you live in York and care about the Arts read this!

I am shocked to read proposals that the community arts budget and the arts education consultancy service budget are proposed to cease as part of the savings process in York.

This means that the two community arts posts will be lost, as well as the three schools consultant posts within the Arts Education Service.

In the words of the council, "This will obviously have an impact on the range of services provided and offered to residents and the community, education and arts sectors."

No kidding! These people do small miracles every day that make real difference in peoples lives. Cutting the arts is an easy hit in a recession but it's in times of hardship that these services are needed even more.

If you live in York and want to see the arts survive, The public is able to formally respond to specific proposals through email to your local ward councillors.
Ben Drake (Unison representative) - ben.drake@york.gov.uk

Any comments or views should be sent by Monday 25th January.

The recommendations arising from the Decision Session will be put to the Council budget meeting on 25th February 2010.

An example of the valuable work York were part of is the BioMation programme which explored heath issues through animation with patients, medical professionals and artists. The Aspergers film, which I was proud to work on won Best Short Film at the Edinburgh Mental Health Festival and is now considered an invaluable aid in helping young people and families diagnosed with aspergers.

Hand drawn special effects - The Astronomer's Sun

Lots of job sharing occurs in the making of short films, so it feels in the spirit of things that as well as co-producing “The Astronomers Sun”, I also got stuck into the film making like everyone else.

Back in 2001, I animated effects for another 4mations short film, the multi-award winning “How to Cope with Death”, directed by Ignacio Ferreras at Tandem Films. So I was proud to lend my expertise to “The Astronomers Sun”, climactic effects showstopper.
As a stop motion film, we were all keen to ensure that the effects reflected the ethos and style of the hand crafted world. Digital effects tend to jar and look out of place in stop motion films. For “The Astronomers Sun”, we used a combination of effects elements, optical, miniature, drawn and digital, with many shots combining several techniques to achieve the final look.

The majority of the drawn animation elements I produced were used for the transformation sequence. Henry was filmed with an LED light in his chest and shot using a Vaseline filter which gave a wonderful rich glow. I added hand drawn sparks and vaporous smoke.

Before and after: TOP: The original stop motion footage, complete with an LED light and Vaseline filter, and ABOVE, the final composited image with hand drawn smoke and light particles.

One of over 700 tonal charcoal drawings made of the main smoke pass, all animated on 1’s.

The sparks and smaller smoke elements were animated with a wacom tablet straight into ToonBoom Animate Pro, which sped up the production work flow as well as making it possible to create incredibly rich painterly shots. The drawn smoke elements then went to Kevin Herbison who created mattes for the smoke interacting with Henry and other objects in the scene. Finally, all of these elements were exported and sent to Zoe Matzko in London for compositing in After Effects. What’s exciting in tackling drawn visual effects now is how much modern compositing has transformed the toolkit of possibilities of open to drawn effects artists. Zoe took all of these various layers and made them work together like one beautiful and seamless photograph.